History

Our Proud History

Founded: 1976

Club Colours: Red shirt with yellow trim, dark blue shorts and socks

Social base: Spanish-Australian Club, Narrabundah, ACT

Narrabundah is a central suburb in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The word 'Narrabundah', means 'small bird of prey' in the local Aboriginal dialect.

The name 'Narrabundah Soccer Club' first appeared on the local soccer scene in 1976 in the guise of Melrose - Narrabundah. It was formed after a merger between the two teams that represented the regions then-large Spanish migrant community, Woden Iberia SC and Melrose-Lyons SC.

The newly formed club catered for both junior and senior players in the local Canberra soccer competitions. The senior team competed in the highest level of competition in Canberra for many seasons with varying levels of success. With the backing of the local Spanish community, Narrabundah flourished on and off the field, drawing large crowds to their home games at Boomanulla Oval, which is just a stones-throw from the Spanish-Australian Club in Narupai place, Narrabundah.

The club has over the years developed players who have successfully represented the ACT at Australian National Championships level, NSW State League level, National Soccer League levels. One player, Andrew Bernal, captained Australia at Youth World Cup level and also played for the Socceroos and professionally in Europe during the 1980's and early 90's.

Apart from competing in the local leagues, Narrabundah SC also hosted and competed in various post-season tournaments. The most famous being the 'Copa de la Hispanidad' (Spanish Cup) which is an 'annual' tournament played between various Spanish-community teams from across Australia as a way of celebrating Spanish national day on October 12. Narrabundah has also competed in other tournaments such as the 'Teletón Cup', the Annual 6-a-side tournament (champions in 1994), The Veterans Shield and the Canberra 'Mini World Cup' among others.

The original Narrabundah Soccer Club folded in the late 1980's, but continued to compete in various post-season tournaments such as the Spanish cup. Apart from a brief spell back in the ACT soccer federation during 1994-1996, it took until 2002 to get the club back into official competition on a full-time basis. In late 2001 a group of young soccer enthusiasts approached former president, Mr Roger Arquero with a view to forming a committee to guide Narrabundah Soccer Club successfully and thus the 'new' Narrabundah Soccer Club was formed.

The 2002 season was a steep learning curve for this enthusiastic young club and although results on the field were not as great as expected (9th place) the committee learned a great deal and finished in the black and with renewed hope for the 2003 season. As the 2003 season approached, many people formerly involved in the club came back to offer their help and many former players and even sons of former players came along to strengthen the clubs ranks.

The 2003 season turned out to be one of the most successful-ever in the clubs history with first grade winning the 4th division championship in very convincing fashion and the reserve grade side finishing as runner-up in the 5th division. Narrabundah SC was promoted directly to the First division for the 2004 season.

The 2004 season was always going to be a tough one for Narrabundah and the First grade side took a while to find its feet in the higher division but finished a competitive seventh. Reserves finished the league in fourth position and made the semi finals for the second year running.

The 2005 season saw Narrabundah field an over 35 team in the Masters competition for the first time. In fact, 2005 was a bumper year for the 'Reds' with all three teams making the top 4 finals series, with the reserves only going down in the Grand Final on penalties to a Canberra Olympic side sprinkled with ex NSL players.

In November 2005 the Committee decided to rename the club Narrabundah Football Club (Inc.) bringing it into line with the governing body in Australia, Football Australia (formerly Soccer Australia). In November 2005 the Masters side also bought home some silverware by taking out the annual end of season 'Veterans Plate' tournament.

2006 was a season of contrasting fortunes to those encountered in 2005. None of the three sides finished in the top four, with the Masters side finishing 5th on goal difference after 4 teams tied for 2nd place. Firsts and reserves both finished in 7th place in their respective leagues after some inconsistent results.

2007 was, once again, a season of mixed fortunes for NFC. First grade started the season with serious injuries to several important players during the opening rounds and this marked the path for the remainder of the season. Despite the injuries and lack of depth, they fought hard all season long and even snatched points off a couple of the title-favourites. A new team was started in the sixth division lack of depth also affected their debut season despite patches of brilliance. The bright point of the season came from the reserve grade lads who finally won the fourth division championship and grand final after coming so close in recent years. The lads were worthy winners of the 'double'.

The2008 season was the chance for NFC to build on the 2007 championship wining Div 4 team. The inclusion of a Div 7 team made for stronger depth within the club and was the catalyst for the majority of the Div 4 team from last season moving into the Div 2 team for the 2008 season. The season started with Div 1 playing in the Federation Cup and after losing badly in their opening 2 games, they managed to push Tuggeranong's Premier League team for 90 minutes. There was some hope for the new look Div 1 team this season and this was realised with a Grand Final appearance against White Eagles, which went to the wire with our boys losing 3-2. Div 2 backed up our Div 1 boys all year and were unlucky to miss out in the Semi Final. Div 2 played some great football during the year and capitalised on the experienced players and groomed some young talent for the future. Our Div 4 boys was a completely new team which competed against all teams this year and were heading towards the finals until injuries and call ups affected their title hopes. Our new team in Div 7 was a credit to the club this year, with so many players new to the club they showed dedication to the team and club with some stellar performances. Whilst very unlucky in many games this season, they will be ready for bigger things in 2009.

Narrabundah lost a few influential players for the 2009 division one season but once again the club showed its capability to rebuild. Hopes were high after last season's grand final appearance and the club narrowly missed out on making the quarter finals of the federation cup for the first time on goal difference, knocking off premier league club Queanbeyan City along the way. Despite an enforced mid-season change in coaching staff, the reds finished the season strongly to guarantee a top 4 finish in the league. In the semi final they played Cooma SC and more than matched their illustrious opponents for 84 minutes, before Cooma unfortunately scored against the run of play to knock Narrabundah out of the finals. Cooma went on to win the Grand Final in convincing fashion. Div 2 suffered from a lack of stability caused by players coming and going from the first grade squad but finished the season strongly enough to suggest that there is plenty of promise in the squad. Their assistance to the first grade squad throughout the season was invaluable. The div 5 team was involved in a surprisingly tough 12-team competition and was one of only two teams to beat champions Canberra FC during the season - they finished mid table after a promising start. Div 6 was the big improver of the season and was desperately unlucky not to finish in the top 4, missing out by 3 points. They twice defeated champions ANU but points dropped against weaker teams ended up costing them a finals appearance.

Perhaps the biggest news to come out of the season was Narrabundah FC being named 2009 CAPITAL FOOTBALL STATE LEAGUE CLUB OF THE YEAR at the federation's awards night in October. This is fair recognition of the hard work put in by the committee, coaching & management staff and players over the last 7 years and would not have been possible without the help of our esteemed sponsors and supporters.